On Money & Wall Street
“I wish someone would give me one shred of neutral evidence that financial innovation has led to economic growth—one shred of evidence.” ~Paul Volcker, Former Federal Reserve Chairman
“The only thing useful banks have invented in 20 years is the ATM.” ~Paul Volcker, Former Federal Reserve Chairman
“Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.” ~ Warren Buffett
“There are two kinds of investors, be they large or small: those who don’t know where the market is headed, and those who don’t know that they don’t know. Then again, there is a third type of investor ~the investment professional, who indeed knows that he or she doesn’t know, but whose livelihood depends upon appearing to know.” ~William Bernstein
On Truth and Falsehood
“If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.” ~Mark Twain
“There are some frauds so well conducted that it would be stupidity not to be deceived by them.” ~Charles Caleb Colton “Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything. 14% of people know that.” ~Homer Simpson
On Law and Lawyers
“If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.” ~Charles Dickens
“A lawyer is a person who writes a 10,000-word document and calls it a “brief.” ~Franz Kafka “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.” ~Louis D. Brandeis
On Economics
“A market is the combined behavior of thousands of people responding to information, misinformation and whim.” ~Kenneth Chang
A study of economics usually reveals that the best time to buy anything is last year.” ~Marty Allen
“Ask five economists and you’ll get five different answers (six if one went to Harvard).” ~Edgar R. Fiedler
On Values
“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” ~Bill Gates
“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” ~Abraham Lincoln
